Hot on the heels of the announcement of its new toy, Surface, Microsoft has bought manufacturer of large touch displays Perceptive Pixel.

Microsoft did not say much of the terms of the acquisition. However, the company said that the purchase should offer up new possibilities for its vendor partners. Namely, Microsoft’s president of the office division Kurt DelBene has revealed that the large touch displays will be combined with OEM hardware to make “powerful Windows 8-based PCS”.

Naturally, with the announcement of Surface, the time is ripe to get the rumor mill up and running, and quite rightfully so. Despite what Microsoft would have the public think, announcing Surface and buying a large touch display maker afterwards suggests we may see a mega-Surface or something along those lines.

Seeing as how Microsoft primarily focused on software solutions, the purchase will definitely make its job easier, at least on the touch panel front. The deal is pending regulatory approval.

Micron Technology has announced plans to buy Elpida Memory, the third largest maker of memory chips in the world.

Elpida hasn't had the best of times as of late and the company even filed for bankruptcy earlier this year. Micron will acquire it for $2.5 billion. The deal will see Micron splash out $754 million in cash, while the remaining funds will be aimed at covering Elpida's debt.

The move is expected to expand Micron's manufacturing capacities at a reasonable price. Elpida's factories in Hiroshima, Japan, Rexchip's factory in Taiwan and the same company's testing facility in Akita, Japan, are expected to boost Micron's manufacturing capacity by as much as 50 percent.

Note that Micron has also announced it is buying 24 percent stake in the Rexchip Electronics Corporation from the Powerchip Technology Corporation. Seeing as how Elpida already owns a 65 percent stake there, Micron should come out of the deal with 89 percent of Rexchip ownership as well.

Tinman Michael Dell is set to buy Quest software for $2.5 billion. The move trumps the bid by Insight Venture Partners and was done on the quiet.

The No. 2 U.S. personal computer maker kept its name out of the limelight when Quest disclosed on Thursday that it had received an offer from a "strategic bidder" of $25.50 per share. Quest's shares rose more than 9 percent to finish at $26.06 on Thursday.

Dell has been actively buying companies to expand its offerings to business and diversify away from personal computers. It told investors its focus on the hardware and software needs of corporate customers was gaining momentum. Quest could help Dell's businesses in data management and protection and Windows server management.

Quest makes software to monitor the flow of data through networks and it has worked with Dell since 2004 and is one of the PC maker's top 10 partners. Dell ranks among Quest's five largest partners.

Intel is betting big on the future of human interfaces with a $21 million investment in Tobii, a Swedish company that has been working for years on eye-tracking laptops and other devices.

The news, announced by co-founder and VP John Elvesjö comes on the heels of Tobii’s newest eye-tracking device, which was announced a week ago at CeBit. Elvesjö said that the cunning plan was always to test its technology small scale in laptops and then expand into larger markets like cars and mobile phones.

Eye-tracking is a influential feature that could grow in value. Tobii technology has already been showing how it can control Windows 8 via eye-tracking.

Tobii is unprofitable and 2010 saw a $3.5M loss. Its new eye-tracker is smaller and cheaper and draws less power than its predecessor. It can even be embedded.

Blackstone Group and Bain Capital are preparing a bid for all of Yahoo with Asian partners in a deal that could value the Internet company at about $25 billion.

The scheme includes China's Alibaba and Japan's Softbank and while it has not been finalised it will put pressure on Yahoo's lacklustre board to sell up. If the deal goes through it will value the outfit at more than $20 billion.

Alibaba wants to buying back the 40 percent stake owned by Yahoo has said that it is keeping its options open and said it has not decided whether to participate in a bid for all of Yahoo. Alibaba is , run by its founder and billionaire CEO Jack Ma, has ties with some of the world's most prominent private equity funds and a group of investors including Silver Lake which bought 5 percent of Yahoo in early November.

A bid for Yahoo at more than $20 per share would mean a deal value of about $25 billion based on 1.24 billion shares outstanding, potentially making it the largest leveraged buyout in recent years.

The dark satanic rumour mill has manufactured a hell on earth rumour that the shipmaker Hyundai Heavy Industries is about to make a bid for the giant memory chip maker Hynix Semiconductor.

A senior insider from a Hynix creditor said Hyundai Heavy is mulling over submitting a letter of intent (LOI) for the company. Nine creditors are involved in the sale including Korea Finance Corp. (KoFC), Korea Exchange Bank (KEB), Shinhan Bank and Woori Bank with the deadline for presenting an interest by July 8.

According to the local press, HHI has decided to make a sole bid for the chip maker as part of the former’s strategy of regaining the family conglomerate. Hynix was once part of Hyundai Electronics.

Textile-focused Hyosung was apparently interested but dropped its bid for Hynix.

Are you a student who is planning to buy a new PC in 2011? If you plan to spend $699 or more on that new Windows 7 PC, Microsoft has a deal for you.

If you have a valid student ID and you purchase a new Windows 7 PC that costs $699 or more, you can get a free Xbox 360 4GB model starting on Sunday May 22nd. Of course, the offer is only available at participating retailers while supplies last, and when they are gone, they are gone.

You can find out if you can qualify by clicking here starting May 22nd.

Auctioneers Ebay has said that it will write a cheque for $2.4 billion for GSI Commerce.

The outfit runs websites for retailers like Toys R Us and Bath & Body Works. EBay hopes the sale will help it become more of a threat to Amazon.com.

GSI is pretty big. It runs websites, packs and ships products and offers interactive marketing services to a variety of retailers. It has long-term contracts with 180 retailers, including Radio Shack, Ace Hardware and American Eagle Outfitters. EBay has been working on improving its eBay.com website by doing things such as revamping its home page, cutting upfront listing fees it charges sellers and bolstering its search engine.

The $2.4 billion total is the second-largest amount eBay has paid for another company thus far. In 2005 eBay paid $2.6 billion for Internet calling and messaging service Skype, which it has since flogged off.

As part of the acquisition, eBay plans to sell GSI's licensed sports merchandise business and 70 percent of shopping sites RueLaLa.com and ShopRunner.com. EBay hopes to complete the deal by the end of the year.

T-Mobile USA CEO Philipp Humm has sent an Email to employees trying to deal with the likely unexpected and unsettling news of the proposed T-Mobile USA purchase by AT&T. Sources tell us that in the Email Humm says that AT&T is committed to “…keeping talented people though the transition,” but it seems the T-Mobile employees we spoke with feel the situation is dicey, at best, for most employees to retain future employment with AT&T; they believe many job cuts are likely despite the fact that neither company has addressed this yet.

While it might be the best possible solution for the business and for the customers, it seems that not everyone agrees with this opinion. Some suggest that a combined AT&T and T-Mobile is just too huge and will create one company with too much control of the cell business in the United States. This could lead to some potential regulatory issues for the deal to overcome.

Of course, the big deal is believed to be the fact that the combined company can deliver a 4G solution to 95% of the population in the U.S. in a much faster time frame than either company could have achieved on its own. The broadband access will be appealing to some, as it will over time provide higher speed access to communities and places that are not covered by other options.

AT&T does have a good track record on successful mergers in this space; and it is likely that despite what many customers might think right now, the benefits will likely outweigh the potential negatives long-term. Still, there will be challenges such as T-Mobile’s lower prices on many plans and for data access that will need resolved. These are perhaps small things that happen in any combination of two companies, but the future could be very bright for T-Mobile customers as they will be able to take advantage of the expanded network and quality offered by AT&T’s existing network.

After a few false starts and stops, Deutsche Telekom has entered into a deal to sell T-Mobile USA to AT&T. The decision has been approved by Boards of Directors at both companies in a transaction that is valued at approximately $39 billion in combination of cash and stock. AT&T will assume no debt from T-Mobile USA, as the company has a strong balance sheet.

The deal provides perhaps the best combination of the companies in the fact that both companies are currently on the GSM platform and both are committed to LTE 4G deployments going forward. The combinations of networks provided significant spectrum which would be an advantage moving forward. AT&T says as a result of this plan it will be able to reach an additional 46.5 million Americans with its 4G LTE deployment meaning that it will have coverage for 95% of the US population. It is estimated that the gain in coverage from T-Mobile USA cell sites would have taken five years to build.

It is estimated that AT&T will gain an additional 33 million customers from T-Mobile USA as part of this transaction. For T-Mobile customers, the transaction will be pretty seamless as both carriers have GSM/UMTS network that is compatible which is the clear advantage in the deal. Current T-Mobile USA customers will enjoy better coverage than they have ever had before.